Sony ICF-F12S FM Radio

The product is good, no doubt about it. However I feel that some reviewers are overpraising this product. I am using it for a month now with a home made long wire short wave antenna, and I am being able to tune into BBC from Chennai (in the daytime). However, this radio is not a choice if you want to DX. If you are looking for a radio to scan short wave specifically, please do not buy this.

Again for 800 Rs price tag, this is OK.

This set reminds me of my childhood, when I play my childhood favorite AIR Cuttack on it. Unlike those times, the FM stations are like honey added on it. But the SW band disappoints with its transmission quality. A good bedside device with soothing sound quality. In signal reception, this set wont disappoint you. Battery is comparatively more suitable than power conversion. The only difference I have noticed is that, in youtube videos you will find one red indicator showing signal strength and green one for volume with a backlight for the tuning meter, which is missing in the set being supplied by flipkart. I am more than a bit surprised, why these useful features have been withdrawn from my set. May I request FLIPKART, to look in to it and replace my set with these features, if possible.

A Nice small radio, with beautiful retro looks. And it does have Excellent Sound in spite of having a mono speaker !! That's the plus point of this piece.

The reception is pretty good. I get very good FM (in Mumbai) after adjusting antenna properly. AM reception is not that great. I can get some SW stations - some clear, some noisy - if I place the radio near the window. But I have rarely got any better SW reception with any radio, so that's not a major drawback. This is not a high end short wave receiver at this price !! ...The good part is that, being portable you can move it around and find out where you get the best reception. Usually near the windows is the best place. ...MW reception was not so satisfactory because I used to get better with my old Big radio. But still it's quite acceptable, especially considering that there is little broadcast over MW these days !! So overall very fine performance. The best part about a radio of this kind - I am myself using one like thsi after many many years - is that you can listen to ti passively - unlike the mobile radios which you have to plug into your ears. So you can keep it on at a distance in the background, do your other work, and at the same time indulge in what you may call 'passive listening' - like I am doing now while writing this review !!

Coming to the flip side - there are a couple of things !! The first and more important is that the volume knob is hard to turn and it's difficult to do fine adjustmnts to the volume - it may get too high or too low for your requirement - especially it matters in the night !! But with a bit of persistance, you can finally adjust it reasonably close !! The second problem - it's just an incovenience - is that there is no power indicator light, so if the volume is low, there is no way to notice if you leave the radio on accidently!! I don't know whay they couldn's add such a basic feature !!

Also note that there is a headphione connection, but being mono you get sound only in one ear !! So that definitely can be a major issue if you plan to use it with a headphone. But in all probability if you are buying this kind of radio, it's not so much to use ot with headphones.

Overall for this price range, this radio deserves well above 4 stars !!If you are happy with these features, Go for it !!

I ordered the Sony FM Only battery powered radio on 1st Feb 2013 and got it delivered on 4th . Flipkart is really fast as compared to others (SD and HS18). I really must say.
Indeed the FM radio is a perfect small sized device very Powerfull. sound is just awesome like a power house. Catches Fm to a great expect without antenna. yeah! i mean it. and extending the antenna adds to it.
I had Sony BS two in one. before and had used it for almost 10 years ! suddenly it started , ofcourse coz of aging of components , it started giving reception trouble.I thought coz of the Lappy in my neighbourhood.So i searched to have one dedicated only for FM. I got this Radio. It even catches MW Bombay B clearly and can listen to " apli awaad" with a great clearity. Even my mobile phone fails to catch this.

Flip kart delivered me the set which was manufactured in DEC 12... so very latest.So what they say they do. It was perfectly sealed.

The first thing you will notice about this radio is the amazing sound it produces. Sony is known for good sound quality and this product reeks of the same.

The radio is very handy and portable, yet very sturdy and gives a good feel. The reception is awesome and the controls are intuitive. There is a strap in the package which you can use to carry it along. Though, in my opinion, a handle would have been much better.

The package does not include the batteries. So make sure you have them. The sound quality is superb, given the size of this thing. I could hear clear bass, mid range and treble from the speaker. The sound is pretty loud (and slightly distorted) at large volumes. Though most people will be listening at normal volume levels.

A pretty good buy for radio lovers.